Investor's Corner
Tesla bears start GoFundMe page for TSLA short accused of harassing Fremont workers
One of Tesla’s fiercest critics who was reportedly forced to cease his online initiatives against the company has returned to start a GoFundMe page for another TSLA bear, who was recently issued a temporary restraining order for stalking, harassing, and endangering a group of employees from the Fremont factory. The fundraiser has been successful so far, with 373 people raising over $81,000 in just one day.
On Friday, the Alameda County Superior Court in CA granted a temporary restraining order against Randeep Hothi, the man behind @skabooshka, a prominent anti-Tesla account on Twitter. Tesla accused Hothi of committing several offenses against the company, including injuring a member of its security personnel, and later, and harassing a group of employees who were filming a demonstration of Navigate on Autopilot in a company-owned Model 3. The temporary restraining order is effective until May 7, when a hearing is set for the noted TSLA bear.
With Hothi’s hearing approaching, the TSLAQ community (a group of individuals aiming for Tesla to fall) has mobilized to raise funds for their fellow detractor. The GoFundMe page was started by Lawrence Fossi, a fierce Tesla critic who wrote and tweeted under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic. Fossi was one of the TSLAQ community’s most active members, at least until he was reportedly forced to cease his online activities after Elon Musk contacted his boss to complain about his actions. Fossi described the goal of the GoFundMe page for Hothi as follows.
I am Lawrence J. Fossi and wrote at Seeking Alpha under the pseudonym of Montana Skeptic. I learned today that Tesla Inc. has obtained an ex parte (only one side represented) temporary restraining order against $TSLAQ member @skabooshka.
What will follow over the next two weeks or so is “discovery” (depositions, written questions) and an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Tesla can obtain a temporary injunction. Tesla alleges @skabooshka is a dangerous person. I believe he is a seeker of truth who has done valuable work and deserves a vigorous and capable defense.
Tesla’s TRO application was triggered by @skabooshka’s effort to determine the true nature of the forthcoming “Investor Autonomy Event”. I believe important First Amendment rights are at issue, and urge you to support his effort.
Funds will be used to pay @skabooshka’s legal expenses in defending against the Tesla legal action, and in bringing any appropriate counterclaims. Any and all excess funds will be donated to a good related cause, with full disclosure about the recipient or recipients, and proof of donation sent to all donors. Many thanks.
Hothi has received an outpouring of support from the Tesla bear community. A look through the donations given to the fundraiser so far shows several known Tesla shorts, including Stanphyl Capital’s Mark Spiegel (who is tapped at times as a source for TSLA insights by mainstream media), @TeslaCharts, and Fossi himself donating significant amounts. In an update to the fundraiser, Fossi pledged that the money raised through the GoFundMe page will strictly be used for Hothi’s legal needs.
While the response to Hothi’s GoFundMe page is quite impressive, it should be noted that Tesla only filed a restraining order against the Tesla bear after he reportedly endangered the lives of three Tesla employees. On April 16, three employees were filming in a Model 3 when Hothi reportedly stalked and harassed them. So aggressive were Hothi’s actions that the Model 3’s crash avoidance systems were activated. Fearing for their safety, one of the Tesla employees in the vehicle promptly called the police to report the incident.
According to Tesla, the April incident was not the first time that Hothi committed acts against the company. Back in February, the TSLA short reportedly struck a security employee with his car when the latter was about to give him a verbal warning for trespassing into the Fremont factory’s grounds. The matter was also reported to the police, who attempted to issue a warning notice of trespass. Unfortunately, the warning was never given since Hothi proved uncooperative in meeting with Fremont police officers.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
In a striking revelation that underscores the lucrative crossover between Big Tech and space exploration, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, disclosed a massive $94.1 billion equity stake in SpaceX following the rocket company’s blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year.
The disclosure came in Alphabet’s quarterly filing, marking the first time the long-held private investment has been publicly valued at market prices. Google was an early backer, investing alongside Fidelity in 2015 with roughly $500-900 million at a time when SpaceX was valued around $12 billion.
That bet has delivered extraordinary returns, roughly a hundredfold, transforming a strategic play on satellite internet and launch capabilities into one of Alphabet’s largest assets.
Google, $GOOGL, has said they hold $94 billion in SpaceX, $SPCX, shares after IPO.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) July 23, 2026
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
Analysts view the disclosure as validation of Alphabet’s venture strategy beyond its core search and cloud businesses. The investment aligns with deeper ties, including reported multi-billion-dollar deals for AI computing capacity on SpaceX infrastructure. As SpaceX advances Starship flights, Starlink expansion, and ambitious Mars goals under Elon Musk, Google’s stake positions it to benefit from the commercialization of space.
For Alphabet, the windfall highlights how patient, forward-looking bets in transformative sectors can yield outsized rewards. While lockups temper short-term impact, the holding cements SpaceX as a cornerstone of Alphabet’s diversified portfolio in an era where aerospace, AI, and connectivity increasingly intersect. Investors will watch closely as restrictions lift and SpaceX’s public performance unfolds.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
